MAYOR BLOOMBERG DISCUSSES LATEST INITIATIVES TO EVALUATE AND IMPROVE CITY SERVICES IN WEEKLY RADIO ADDRESS

The following is the text of Mayor Bloomberg’s weekly radio address as prepared for delivery on 1010 WINS News Radio for Sunday, June 1, 2008

“Good Morning. This is Mayor Mike Bloomberg.

“Cleaner and safer streets, faster ambulance response
times, higher student test scores and graduation rates, answers to your
questions about City government now available at one phone number, 311, around
the clock – by just about any important measure, essential City services keep
improving. But can they be better? You bet. And the best way to find out how is
to do what businesses do: ask the customers, in this case, you, the people of
New York City.

“That’s why, in partnership with Public Advocate Betsy
Gotbaum, we’ve developed NYC Feedback. It’s the most extensive survey of
municipal services ever conducted by any American city. This month, we’ll
start mailing NYC Feedback surveys to more than 100,000 randomly chosen
households in all five boroughs; that means that roughly one in every 30 homes
in the city will get one.

“The surveys will be available in English, Spanish,
Chinese, and Russian. And they’ll ask questions like: How safe do you feel
walking the streets of your neighborhood alone at night? What do you think of
your local library, or senior center? How do you rate garbage pick-up and other
basic services? The deadline for responding to the surveys is August 15th.
They can be answered on-line at the City’s website, nyc.gov, or filled out by
hand and returned in a postage-paid envelope that we’ll provide. Individual
answers will be kept strictly confidential. But we’ll publicly announce the
statistical results in September, because that’s the best way of ensuring that
we fix any problems that the survey points out.

“Last week, we also took aggressive steps to continue to
improve safety at construction sites throughout the city. Along with Council
Speaker Christine Quinn and leaders from building trades labor and management,
we announced a package of tough new proposed City laws. They’ll give the
Buildings Department the tools it needs for its number one job: enforcing
safety. They’ll also enhance the industry’s own safety practices, because only
by working together can we prevent more tragedies of the kind we’ve recently
seen.

“Our reforms would tighten regulation of construction
general contractors and concrete and demolition contractors, who do the most
hazardous construction procedures. They would set new operating and training
standards concerning construction cranes. And because openness and
accountability are crucial to everything City government does, the Buildings
Department will also start publishing an annual report, available at nyc.gov, on
construction-related injuries and fatalities.

“Our City is growing, and it needs to continue to grow,
but we’re not about to compromise the safety of construction workers, or the
public, in the process. We’re also going to make sure that we constantly
do a better job of providing every important service that every New Yorker
relies on.